Archives for: September 2002, 06

Jacquelyne in the UK is working on a cookbook along BTD principles. She gently reminded me today that she’s had a handful of questions outstanding for some time now... :-} I know we have a multitude of readers from the UK, as well as fish, liver, curry & cheese fans either side the Pond, so, here we go!

Can I count sheep's cheese, yogurt, fromage fraiche, etc the same as for goat's cheese?

Certainly. Goat milk, sheep milk ~ the differences are so minor as to be insignificant when encountered by the human digestive tract.

Calve's liver appears in your lists but why has lambs' liver and that old favourite chicken liver been neglected. Should we all avoid? Also when you speak of curry powder are we talking about garam masala? And what are the ingredients. Over in the UK curry powder (I believe unknown in India) can consist of a whole variety of things. Please help!

If an animal’s muscle meat is neutral or beneficial for a given type, the organ meats thereof rate neutral or better ~~ due to the concentration of vitamins and other nutrients in that "fifth quarter" of the animal.

"Curry" has a place in the food lists because it is a spice combination found in every U.S. supermarket spice rack. The components tend to vary little from brand to brand, so the rating was based upon the standard ingredient list on the average product found in the supermarket. There is wiggle room, as you can see in the Live Right 4 Your Type lists, since some blood groups who do great with turmeric (the largest ingredient in most store-bought "curry powder") do far less well with some of the other ingredients, and vice versa. Yes, we are technically talking about garam masala, but truly a mild and middle-of-the-road commercial variety most commonly composed of turmeric, ginger, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, pepper, clove, cinnamon and garlic ~ and although you didn't ask this, we certainly do not mean "curry leaf" which I’ve seen in the UK but never here.

Can I assume that the listing for shrimp would also apply to prawns?

Sure. Shrimp, prawns... or "scampi" in Italy. All those little shrimp-similar crustaceans.

Me again, sorry! Does skate (order Rajiformes) or ray (order Myliobatiformes) feature in your testing? Or is this a fish only found in British waters? Can it be classified? Many thanks!

I’ve eaten skate in the U.S. (delicious!!), from New York to Florida. There are 20+ species swimming in our coastal waters, all loosely called "skate," most indeed belonging to the genus Raja. I’m sorry to report we have no listing for skate or rays, and I would not conjecture about them at this time as is sometimes my wont. Until they are tested and rated, they may be technically considered "neutral," and goodie for me cuz I adore them.

We have a fish in the UK called red mullet (or goatfish or surmullet), is this any relation to your red snapper? Then there is also grey mullet - is this what you call mullet in the Encyclopaedia?

Our "mullet" is Mullus auratus, also your "red mullet," "goatfish," and "surmullet." Same fishy. We, too, call it "red mullet," and that is what we most commonly see on our fishmonger’s ice-pile: plump little red-silver guys, perhaps five to seven inches in length. Your "gray mullet" is Mugil cephalus, a slightly larger and stouter creature (a bit rough-hewn round the head) sometimes called "striped mullet," and not as readily available here on the Eastern Seaboard – but any of the Mullus and Mugil genus can be considered identical to our "mullet" for rating purposes. Our red snapper is a much larger fish, genus Lutjanus ~ and several species applicable, depending upon which State one fishes from: the far western islands of Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, the coast of North Carolina. They’re all red snapper to us!

Here’s a nice portrait, with measurements, of the fish I see everywhere here in the Northeast: ~ Lutjanus campechanus, on every NYC menu!

I thought that porgy (neutral A/O and beneficial B/A was the same as scup (neurtral O/B/AB and avoid A) according to various websites and yet there are different in the Encyclopeadia. The name Stenotomus chrysops seems to point to both. But my real question is - is this fish (or one of them) any relation to the UK Bream as I have never seen porgy or scup over here? Many thanks

"PorGEE, I’ze your woman now... I is, I is, and....".. whoops, slipped into a Gershwin moment there. Here’s our humble "porgy:" Chrysophrys auratus which our government would like us to call "squirefish" and which everyone calls "porgy" anyway. It is, for us, a Pacific catch, reaching so far west in its range that it has managed to pick up the nomen Australia Red Seabream ~ but has not, I fear, reached so far as your eastern shores! Never eaten one, sorry to say, and from its demeanor I'd wager we're neither of us missing much. Now, your S. chrysops IS our "scup" ~ wish I had another attractive pic for your comparison, but it is not such a large-scale food fish here (where all these delightful food ratings were born) that the FDA site would waste bandwidth on its image. :-> I strongly suspect your "bream" is our "Atlantic pomfret" (or just "pomfret" or "bream") ~ Brama brama ~ sounds like bull but it ain't. Oh ~ and we’re so special over here in the Colonies that we have a "Pacific pomfret" as well: Brama japonica. Whole lotta fishin’ goin’ on! But of course all this is of little help to you, since I’ve no snazzy pic to offer nor any rating for B. spp. Another neutral international fish for the record, and who can say we might not benefit from a bit more neutrality in this tumultuous world of ours? :-D

Jacquelyne, thank you for your questions... and the reminder! :-> Best of luck in your work, and DO keep in touch!! :-D